Last Summer, MGL shared a very exciting secret with me. A year on, it is with no small amount of delight that I can now finally cease my silence! In Maya’s words:

“I have written a book about Portly the Otter, son of Otter from The Wind in the Willows. It is modelled on Kenneth Grahame’s original, as a series of riverbank stories, and features characters we all know and love, as well as introducing you to some new ones. The book is called The Adventures of Portly the Otter - Untold Tales from The Wind in the Willows and will answer a mystery I wondered about a lot as a child, which is - what really happened to Portly for him to be missing for so long, and end up - discovered by Ratty and Moley,- curled up between the cloven hooves of the god Pan? The book is illustrated by the fabulous Polly Dunbar and will be printed as a four colour hardback gift book in March 2026 by Farshore. I cannot tell you what a joy it has been to revisit the riverbank and spend time with the much beloved Ratty, Moley, Badger, and of course the mischievous Mr Toad, but the biggest delight of all has been spending a year researching and learning about otters.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second part of David Oakes' interview with Professors Fiona Mathews and Tim Kendall, the mammal-enthused trio head into the Forest of Dean in search of Wild Boar!

Fiona Mathews is a professor of Environmental Biology at the University of Sussex and the founding Chair of Mammal Conservation Europe; Tim Kendall is a professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter, and; their dog Charlie Brown is an especially trained labrador with the talent for locating the bodies of bats that have been killed or injured by wind turbines, all in the name of conservation science. Together, they wrote the Wainwright award-nominated book “Black Ops & Beaver Bombing: Adventures with Britain’s Wild Mammals”. In this two part interview, hear how Fiona’s construction of the Red List for British Mammals informs our Government and has lead to cutting edge mammal conservation projects. They discuss the British Coypu population that caused concern in the 1980s, the effectiveness of the mysterious “Beaver Bombers” secretly releasing animals across Europe, and the tale of the lone Scottish Pine Marten that ended up in Georgia, USA (a fate subjectively worse than the Beech Marten who got stuck in the Large Hadron Collider!) The trio of Fiona, Tim and David (alas without Charlie Brown) then head into the Forest of Dean to locate the most contentious of Britain’s mammals – the Wild Boar!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rob Stoneman wanted to make lots of money in the oil industry… and then he found peat! This episode is a deep dive into that blancmange-like substance that should be our saviour. Also, the Wildlife Trusts’ plans to grow a new rain forest in North Wales and Rob’s dream of having a mile deep nature reserve that circumnavigates the entirety of the British Isles coastline.

A geologist at source, Rob has grown into a leading expert on the pragmatism required for landscape reform on the British Isle. Before becoming the inaugural Director of Landscape Recovery at the Wildlife Trusts, Rob managed vast areas of burgeoning biodiversity across the European continent for Rewilding Europe. Prior to that, he ran the Sheffield, then Hampshire and then the Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts.

Rob and David tackle some genuinely daunting subjects: green finance and carbon credits, the feasibility and required timescale for achieving carbon neutrality, the post-Brexit opportunities for reformed agro-subsidy schemes, the potential symbiosis between nature tourism and food production, how conservation NGOs collaborate without becoming an enviro-cartel, and there’s even time to squeeze in a compliment to none other than Michael Gove(?!)

And if that doesn’t float your boat, then stick around for the bison, the elk, and the pumas that prey upon guinea pigs!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the launch of his latest video installation at the Tate St Ives, artist Andy Holden meets with David Oakes to discuss the creativity present within the bird world. But, whilst exploring avian aesthetics, Andy's artwork - "A Natural History of Nest Building" - also explores the roles of nature versus nurture at an additional level. This exhibition, one exploring how and why Birds learn to create nest structures, is created by a father and son team; the son an artist, and the father a famous ornithologist. Which begs question: was this film, one about creating homes, nurturing eggs, and fledging one’s young, really just about birds? In this ornithological deep dive, Andy and Peter Holden discuss approaching a shared passion from opposite directions. You'll hear about the super-stimulus associated with the gaping beak of the infanticide-committing cuckoo, the individual spin that different birds of the same species place upon their own personal nests, and the complicated legacy of the mysterious egg-stealing Jordain Society.

Andy Holden is a multi-faceted artist who has exhibited at the Tate Britain, has had music aired on BBC 6 Music, and has created everything from human-sized bower-bird bowers, to enormous knitted rocks based upon a piece of pyramid which he stole as a boy. His father, Peter Holden MBE, worked for the RSPB for almost 40 years to boost their youth engagement. He was most notably instrumental in developing their “Big Garden Birdwatch” - the UK’s first 'citizen science' project, which has been running now for 45 years, and counted around 190 million birds.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.